The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
In a production facility for assembling appliances, computers, motor vehicles, or other products comprising components that must be reliably joined with electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, optical, mechanical, or other connections, it is important to be able to verify that all of the connections have been made reliably. For example, where the coupling involves an electrical connection, it is important to be able to reliably and efficiently ascertain whether the electrical connectors are fully seated. Similarly, where the coupling involves a hydraulic, pneumatic or optical connection, it is important to be able to reliably and efficiently ascertain whether the hydraulic, pneumatic or optical connectors are fully seated. When electrical connectors are not fully seated, the faultily connected subassemblies may initially operate satisfactorily, but may fail prematurely in service.
To avoid faulty connections, many conventional connectors incorporate position assurance features such as male tabs that cooperate with corresponding female slots or ridges that cooperate with slots or lock tangs that snap into place when the connector is fully and properly seated. Conventional assembly processes associated with such snap-lock features may require an assembly technician to apply a tension force to each connector assembly following assembly so as to verify that the assembly is fully seated. One such process is known as “Push-Click-Tug-Verify.”
Unfortunately, manual processes such as Push-Click-Tug-Verify can be labor intensive, tedious, and relatively unreliable. In a motor vehicle, there may be hundreds or even thousands of connections to make, causing the implementation of labor-intensive processes like Push-Click-Tug-Verify cost-prohibitive to implement except in limited situations. In addition, the cost of incorporating such position assurance or locking features on connectors can become significant when implemented broadly.
Therefore, it is desirable to have an improved system and method for verifying proper assembly of connectors such as electrical connectors, hydraulic connectors, pneumatic connectors and optical connectors.